Yesterday’s “New Reality of Evolution” Debunked Again

For several decades, leading evolutionists have attempted to sell their beloved theory as “fact.” In 1944, W.W. Howells wrote: “Evolution is a fact like digestion” (p.5, emp. added). Eight years later, Richard Goldschmidt arrogantly asserted: “Evolution of the animal and plant world is considered by all those entitled to a judgment to be a fact for which no further proof is needed” (1952, 49:84, emp. added). J. Savage penned a book in the mid-1960s, titled Evolution, in which he alleged “the fact of evolution is amply clear” (1965, preface, emp. added). In a 1980 Newsweek article, Stephen J. Gould gave us one of the more memorable quotes on evolution, saying, “Evolution is a fact, like apples falling out of trees” (as quoted in Adler, 1980, 96[18]:95, emp. added). More recently, Thomas Hayden, writing for U.S. News & World Report, exclaimed: “By now, scientists say, evolution is no longer ‘just a theory.’ It’s an everyday phenomenon, a fundamental fact of biology as real as hunger and as unavoidable as death” (2002, 133[4]:43, emp. added).

Interestingly, however, yesterday’s evolutionary “facts” and “proofs” crumble under the weight of present-day truths. At one time, evolutionists heralded the alleged fact that human embryos retrace their evolutionary heritage (a concept known as “ontogeny recapitulating phylogeny”). Although uninformed (or dishonest) evolutionists occasionally still use this argument, both creationists and informed evolutionists know that

[e]mbryology provides no support whatsoever for the evolutionary hypothesis.... Now that the appearance of the embryo at all stages is known, the general feeling is one of disappointment; the human embryo at no stage is anthropoid in appearance (Keith, 1932, pp. 94-95).

Similarly, for decades textbook writers passed off evolutionary theory as fact with the renowned horse family tree. Due to the severe lack of fossil evidence linking the various horse “family members” together, many evolutionists have abandoned horse evolution. “The uniform, continuous transformation of Hyracotherium into Equus, so dear to the hearts of generations of textbook writers, never happened in nature” (Simpson, 1953, p. 125, emp. added).

Consider one other recent example of evolutionary “fact” turned fiction. Five years ago, on the cover of U.S. News and World Report were the words “The New Reality of Evolution.” The overly confident cover-story author, Thomas Hayden, assured everyone at the very outset that evolution is a “fundamental fact” (2002, 133[4]:43). He then paraded various alleged proofs before the reader (“proofs” that Apologetics Press exposed as hoaxes two months later; see Harrub and Thompson, 2002). One of Hayden’s statements, however, was not disproved for another three years. He wrote:

We may owe our own dominance to the asteroid impact that killed the dinosaurs 65 million years ago. As mammals, we like to think that we’re pretty...superior. The sad truth: “Mammals coexisted with dinosaurs for 150 million years but were never able to get beyond little ratlike things,” says Knoll. “It was only when the dinosaurs were removed that mammals had the ecological freedom to evolve new features” (2002, 133[4]:45).

Statements like this routinely appear in evolutionary articles purporting “the facts.” But, as so often is the case, when more evidence is gathered, evolutionary “facts” become outright errors. Whereas Hayden touted “the reality” of evolution and “the sad truth” that mammals in the time of the dinosaurs were “never able to get beyond little ratlike things” (p. 45, emp. added), three years later the fossils of a mammal “20 times larger” than what evolutionists believed to be possible were reported to be in the same fossil beds as the dinosaurs (see Verrengia, 2005). Another mammal discovered in the same region actually had the remains of a five-inch dinosaur in its stomach—proof that mammals much larger than chipmunks and rats not only lived with dinosaurs, but even ate some of them (see Hu, et al., 2005, 433:151).

It has been over two years since the “truth” purported by U.S. News & World Report to bolster the case for evolution’s “reality” was shown clearly to be an error. Sadly, more people hear about the false “reality” of evolution than its many errors. We should not be surprised. After all, Satan is the father of lies (John 8:44). What bigger and more destructive lie could the devil sell than atheistic evolution?

For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness...who exchanged the truth of God for the lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever (Romans 1:18,25).

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